David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

"It is difficult at times to repress the thought that history is about as
instructive as an abattoir; that Tacitus was right and that peace is
merely the desolation left behind after the decisive operations of
merciless power..."

Psalm 8:2 (King James Version)

29 August 2013

For many years, Ann Stephen has been the foremost advocate for the art work of Ian Burn.

Now she is re-staging an exhibition by Burn, Mel Ramsden and Roger Cutforth first shown in 1969 at Pinacotheca Gallery, St. Kilda, Melbourne.

1969: The Black Box of Conceptual Art at the University Art Gallery, University of Sydney, until October 25.The full catalog is available online : click here
l - r : Ian Burn, Roger Cutforth, Mel Ramsden in New York, 1969

16 August 2013

Melbourne Now countdown – day 98

Peter Tyndall is a well-respected, and rather funny, conceptual artist, who has developed a number of tropes thatengage with recursive relationships between art, languageand meaning. Language shapes what is possible to know; at the same time meaning shapes and changes language. Art often brings other kinds of knowing into being; at the sametime we don’t always know what artmeans. Contemplatingand discussing a painting attaches meaning to it, although it was never a blato begin with (well, unless it was…).click here to read article at NGV BLOG

blogB to blogA. over.

i read you blogA. over

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something ...

LOGOS/HA HA

14 August 2013

August 14 marks the 100th day until the opening of Melbourne Now, the largest initiative ever undertaken by the National Gallery of Victoria. Bringing together over 200 contemporary artists, Melbourne Now celebrates the latest art, architecture, design and performance to reflect the unique cultural landscape of Melbourne."Read the full NGV media releasehere

Now, 100 years.

Here are The Three Figures.

They perform for Theatre of the Actors of Regard

as a rebus atableau vivanta turning 100

Let's start with Figure 2. That's Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheelof 1913. A circle, a cycle, and the first turning of a revolution in Art. Re-conceived in 1915 as the first "Readymade".

In the 1960s, Duchamp said to Arturo Schwarz:

"The Bicycle Wheel is my first Readymade, so much so that at first it wasn't even called a Readymade. It still had little to do with the idea of the Readymade. Rather it had more to do with the idea of chance. In a way, it was simply letting things go by themselves and having a sort of created atmosphere in a studio, an apartment where you live. Probably, to help your ideas come out of your head. To set the wheel turning was very soothing, very comforting, a sort of opening of avenues on other things than material life of every day. I liked the idea of having a bicycle wheel in my studio. I enjoyed looking at it, just as I enjoyed looking at the flames dancing in a fireplace. It was like having a fireplace in my studio, the movement of the wheel reminded me of the movement of flames."

2013 is the 100th anniversary of this simple unlaboured act of regard.

Later this year Monash University Museum of Art will mark this anniversary with their exhibition Reinventing the Wheel: the Readymade Century.

. . . .

Next, Figure 3. Kasimir Malevich's Plane in Rotation, usually referred to as Black Circle. Another turning circle, another revolution.

Another 100 years. Some references give the date of this work as 1915, but just as Duchamp's 1913 "Readymade" was so designated in 1915, so too 1915 is only when Malevich first exhibited this radical work, as one of his "Suprematist" paintings in the 0.10 exhibition. Camilla Gray, in her
book (our ref. here) dates it with Black Square and Black Cross as c.1913.

Malevich wrote:

“…in the year 1913, in my desperate attempt to free art from the burden of the object, I took refuge in the square form and exhibited a picture which consisted of nothing more than a black square on a white field”.

. . . .

Figure 1. is a form of .../ideogram of dependent-arising...

Peter Tyndall -1978- Collection: National Gallery of Australia

/consequence and its cause.../foil to The Thing-In-Itself/projection-space suspended...

/something because.../someone because...

By the close of Melbourne Now, in 2014, it will be the 40 years anniversary of /this uncertain something...

09 August 2013

Though it might seem to anticipate it, the drawthing below was made well before the Three-word slogan generator.

Made in appreciation of a very different world, that of Iggle Piggle; Makka Pakka; Upsy Daisy (and her Orange Megaphone through which she declares "Pip pip onk onk!"); the Tombliboos (Unn, Ooo and Eee whose names reflect phonetically how a young child might count to three); the (red) Pontipines & the (blue) Wottingers (both families constantly chatter, making high-pitched "mi-mi-mi" sounds and "farting" noises); the Haahoos; the Ninky Nonk and the Pinky Ponk. These are the characters and lingua ignota of our compulsive TellyViewing :In The Night Garden, ABC TV2 nightly at 6.30.

(Alan Saunders died in June 2012. For many years, he presented The Philosopher's Zoneon ABC Radio National.)

Well into the lecture, it stops mid-sentence...

as an excited ABC24 presenter tells us "We are just breaking into that program because Kevin Rudd has left Brisbane and is currently in the air, heading to Canberra...".

Election Fever!

They never did return us to the philosopher. Before his abrupt dismissal, Simon Blackburn had already noted the general lowering of regard for the role and contribution of philosophy. Below science... below politics... below entertainment...

In place of the lecture, we were now shown LIVE! imagery of the closed gates of the Governor General's residence at Yarralumla. Homage to Andy Warhol. Intermittently, we were also shown LIVE! images of the TV crews who were filming the closed gates of the Governor General's residence at Yarralumla. All this as back at the studio the political journalists wet themselves in anticipatory speculation.

Anything yet?

Nothing yet.

Several hours later we turn the telly on again. Now, in place of the lecture, LIVE! images of a lectern in front of a door at the Governor General's residence at Yarralumla.

After 15 minutes of this LIVE! still-life, Kevin Rudd appeared and announced what the journalists had already told us would be announced: an election on September 7.

Being grumpy, we had the sound off/spectacle on. A screen sub-caption quoted the politician :

"Three word slogans

one two three

don't solve complex problems

one two three

they never have

one two three

they never will."

one two three

K. Rudd : Count my lips : No More Slogans!

Earlier, the cut-down philosopher had broached the pecking order of power and influence: science and politics above philosophy... Whither the Arts?

Yesterday was a Sunday.

On Sunday nights, when most have surely gone to bed, the ABC presents/ranks it's best Arts programs.

Sunday Arts Up Late is ABC Arts weekly arts documentary showcase on ABC1 hosted by highly regarded playwright and director Wesley Enoch. Every week, Sunday Arts Up Late features high end, cutting edge arts content from Australia and around the world including feature-length documentaries, short run series and one off specials.

Last night it was Soundtrack for a Revolution (a history of the 1960s Civil Rights struggle in the United States, and the music associated with that) ending at 11.45pm; and Trumbo (about Dalton Trumbo, an oscar-winning screenwriter who was blacklisted and jailed during the period of McCarthyism in the US) ending at 1.20am. Such a cynical contempt for the ABC arts audience. Excellent programs, but who can watch them late on a Sunday? And they are not available on iView. So why do they bother at all? Perhaps it looks good on some Arts stats chart when the ABC reports to the politicians in Canberra.

Go figure! The thinking of the ABC : this image is from the web-page for the Alan Saunders Memorial Lecture